


Rear Window

by andromedagalaxy



Series: Eyewitness Week [5]
Category: Eyewitness (US TV)
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-21
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-21 02:25:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12447720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andromedagalaxy/pseuds/andromedagalaxy
Summary: “Well,” Philip says. “Lukas thinks something weird is going on.”“I think he killed his wife,” Lukas says, definitively.Philip widens his eyes at him. “Earlier you thought something was going on, now you’ve jumped to murder? What the hell, Lukas?”“She’s nowhere to be found, she’s not over there,” Lukas says, gesturing towards the window. “And he left his apartment over and over again in the early hours of the morning, Rose. With a briefcase.” Maybe he does sound a little crazy. But he’s not gonna back down until he sees the wife up and around.Rose narrows her eyes, clicking her tongue. “Maybe he’s stepping out on her.”“That’s probably it,” Philip says.“No,” Lukas says, shaking his head. That doesn’t feel like it. This feels a lot more sinister. “She’s not there right now. He did something with her.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be finished but it wound up being way too big of an idea to pop it out in time. So it'll probably be two or three chapters! Rear Window AU! Any Hitchcock fans? Hope you guys enjoy and bear with me, things have been very hectic lately but when we get this one done we'll be back to regular college programming :)

The cast is gigantic. It takes up his entire goddamn leg. And Lukas feels like an invalid in this fucking wheelchair—he wishes Philip and Rose wouldn’t insist on him staying in it during the day. He feels like he winds up sleeping in it sometimes out of spite. He rests his head in his hand and sighs, looking out the window. The heat is overwhelming. It’s seeping in through the walls and through his skin and into his bones. Even the broken ones. 

He can see all their neighbors across the courtyard, as if he’s got his very own play going on at all times. That young couple is kissing in their windowsill again, like they have been for hours the past three days. The woman with the curly hair and her sister are sitting on the balcony passing a bottle back and forth, and Lukas smiles a little bit to himself as he sees the Larsons’ bringing their dog downstairs to run around. That tall handsome man is down there tending to his flower beds, and he eyes the dog as it runs past him. 

_Stop spying. Stop spying._ Lukas scoffs at himself. He doesn’t have anything else to fucking do. He looks around his living room—Philip is out at one of his shoots and yet half of his camera equipment is hanging around here. He’s been living with Lukas for a month and it looks more like it’s been a year. Lukas tries to complain, raise a fuss, but he secretly loves Philip’s mess. 

He peers out the window again. All the neighbors have theirs open too, trying desperately to catch some sort of breeze if one ever happens to come their way. 

He feels goddamn listless like this. He wants to get back on his bike, whether he has a cast on or not. This shit is driving him insane. He hasn’t moved properly in seven weeks. The cast is too big for him not to half kill himself when he tries to walk on crutches.

One more week. One more week.

He looks down at the inscription Philip scrawled on the cast the day he got it. _HERE LIES THE BROKEN BONES OF LUKAS WALDENBECK._

He looks up when he hears raised voices. The handsome man is back in his apartment now, and he seems to be yelling at his wife. Lukas tries not to pay attention, but he pays attention anyways. He always thought that girl looked way too young for that guy. The fight seems full of venom and Lukas clears his throat, sort of anxious for Philip to come home.

The door opens then, but it’s not Philip.

Lukas puts his hand over his heart as Rose breezes into the apartment, putting down some bags and a drink on his table. “Sometimes I regret giving you a key.”

“Sometimes I regret giving you my nursing services,” she says. 

“You don’t even do anything anymore,” Lukas says. “You just come in and berate me, remind me about circulation, take my temperature and leave.”

“I make sure you’re not in here dying of hunger when Philip is at work,” she says, marching into the kitchen. 

“How much does he pay you?” Lukas calls, looking out the window again. The sisters have gone inside, and the handsome man is still fighting with his wife. 

“Shut up, Lukas,” Rose calls. 

“I don’t want peanut butter and jelly again!” Lukas says. 

“You’re having McDonald’s, I’m just getting you a water bottle,” she says, appearing again. She rolls him over to the table and he looks over his shoulder, feeling a little weird about being pulled away from his live entertainment. She sets his water bottle down in front of him.

“You being a Peeping Tom again?” she asks, pulling two burgers out from a bag, sitting down across from him. 

“Are you 80 years old?” Lukas asks. “Who says that?”

“The answer is obviously yes,” she says, raising her eyebrows. “You’re gonna see something you’re not supposed to see. Then you’re gonna regret sitting around like an asshole spying on your neighbors.”

He narrows his eyes. 

“Philip wouldn’t do that shit if he was the one laid up,” Rose says, taking a bite of her burger. She pulls a fry from their container and dips it in her milkshake. 

“Because Philip is perfect,” Lukas says. “He doesn’t do anything wrong, ever.”

“Here we go,” Rose says. 

“What?” Lukas says. “He is.” Sometimes Lukas thinks he’s too perfect. Too good for him. Even his photographs are perfect. Perfect people in a perfect world, taken by a perfect photographer with perfect hair and a perfect mouth. 

“Stop acting like that boy isn’t your goddamn soulmate, Lukas,” Rose says, eating another chocolate-dipped fry. 

Lukas shifts his mouth to the side, tries to itch under the top of the cast to no avail. “He’s too good for me.”

Rose groans. “I’m not bringing you food anymore.”

“Does that mean you’ll never take my temperature again?” Lukas asks, looking up at her.

“I’m gonna send one of my meaner colleagues,” Rose says, glaring at him. “Real Nurse Ratched type. You’ll love her.”

Lukas sighs. “You can’t know Philip and not believe that he deserves someone a lot better than I am. I’m…dirty, ragged, whatever, he’s so put together and incredible that I couldn’t ever hold a candle to him.” Lukas hates that he still thinks this. Even now that they live together, are building a life together. Every time he looks at Philip, has Philip in his arms, it’s like he knows Philip could do so much better. Especially now, with this fucking cast, making everything difficult.

“You’re just down because of your leg, and I know it,” Rose says. “We gotta put you on some anxiety pills or some shit. One more week.”

“One more week,” Lukas says, nodding. He’s been repeating that to himself over and over since midnight last night. Then maybe he’ll be able to get back on the metaphorical horse again. Or the actual bike. Then he’ll realize why Philip is here, why Philip loves him.

“Do I have to take your temperature?” Rose asks.

“No, I’m fine,” Lukas says. 

“I will when you’re done eating,” she says, and Lukas sighs.

~

After she leaves he watches out the window a little bit longer, bored with the daytime TV. He scrolls through Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr and Pinterest until he hates himself and everybody else, and forgoes the impossible roll to the bedroom and falls asleep beside the window, the hot breeze clearly not what he was asking for but what he receives all the same.

He’s taken out of a dusky dream by a pair of lips pressing against his own, dragging him back to the land of the living. He hums a little bit, dizzy under the familiarity of it, and when he opens his eyes an angel is there staring back at him.

“Sleeping by the window again,” Philip says, brushing Lukas’s hair out of his eyes. “You’re a mess.”

“You look nice,” Lukas says, looking him up and down. He’s wearing a suit jacket over a button-up shirt and nice pants, no creases, adding more to Lukas’s vision of him as the most perfect person in the world.

“Yeah?” Philip asks, kissing him on the forehead before straightening up again. “Good. I’m seeing a show tonight.”

Lukas narrows his eyes, immediately irritated at the thought of being teased with Philip’s presence before being left alone. “A show?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Philip says. “Opening night of last week of Lukas in the cast.”

Lukas laughs, his chest going a little warm. “Ah, okay,” he says. “That’s fine. I’ve heard good things about that one.” He knows he’s gay but he still tries to maintain some kind of macho attitude, and his penchant for Broadway shows doesn’t help him out in that regard.

“Rose told me you were being dramatic again this morning,” Philip says, walking over to the table. There are a couple brown paper bags there and Lukas thinks that his life has become people he loves coming over and bringing him food.

“I’m never dramatic,” Lukas says, holding his head high.

“Spying on the neighbors?” Philip asks.

“Only a little,” Lukas says. “The window is bigger than the TV. Draws me in.”

Philip snorts, taking the food containers out of the bag. “We need to fix that,” he says. 

Lukas’s eyes light up. “Did you get Frankie’s?” he asks.

“Yep,” Philip says, smiling over his shoulder.

A wash of affection runs through Lukas’s body. “I love you,” he says. 

“I love you too,” Philip says. 

~

“So then we had to go to another office space in midtown,” Philip says, taking another bite of his steak. He cuts it just so, and Lukas watches his hands work. “That one was a lot smaller and the models had less room to work with, but it turned out okay.”

Lukas has Philip’s digital in his lap and he clicks through the photos. He can always see Philip’s vision in his work, which is why they’re good, but Lukas feels like he doesn’t get to do much with his talent with the shit jobs the magazine gives him. Philip never took professional photos of Lukas riding but they were goddamn beautiful, a reflection of the perfect person that took them. His photos now are good, but there’s no part of Philip’s amazing soul in the things he’s forced to do. He’s so much better than this.

“You’ve got a weird look in your eye,” Philip says, taking a sip of wine. 

Lukas looks up at him fast. “No.”

“You don’t like them?” Philip asks, motioning down at the camera. 

“No, I like them,” Lukas says. “I like everything you do.”

“But I know your face well enough by now to know when you’re thinking something,” Philip says. “What’s wrong with the photos?”

“Nothing’s _wrong_ with them,” Lukas says, looking down and clicking through a couple more. “They’re great.”

Philip scoffs. “Okay, Lukas.”

Lukas sees this going south. “I just know that if you could pick your own projects that it’d be so much better. You are capable of so much and they just…don’t let you do it. They don’t let you be dangerous or take any risks.”

“Dangerous?” Philip asks, raising his eyebrows. “I think you have enough danger in your profession for the both of us. Giant cast posing as an everyday reminder.”

Lukas shrugs. “I just know what your photos looked like before you started working for these people and when you’re in charge of what you do, the outcome is incredible.”

Philip stares off for a couple of long moments, tapping his fork on his plate, and Lukas feels like he’s done something wrong. “Yeah,” Philip says. “You’re right, but I, uh—can’t really get that kind of job yet, so…guess we’re gonna have to stick with the unsafe models for now.”

He gets up, walking behind Lukas and into the kitchen. Lukas sighs, his chest going tight, and he knows he’s been an asshole since the accident, and seeing Philip get upset makes him realize he needs to chill the fuck out. “Babe,” Lukas says, looking over his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’m being a dick, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Philip calls, and Lukas hears him washing his hands. 

“You’ve been so sweet with me since this happened, putting up with my shit and I just…I’m sorry,” Lukas says, sighing. “Please come here.”

He hears the water stop but Philip doesn’t instantly appear, and Lukas’s heart hurts. “I’m a shithead,” Lukas says. “I just—”

Philip walks back out then, coming up behind him. “Just stop,” he says, and he pulls Lukas’s wheelchair out a little bit, moving him over to the window. He puts on the break and then before Lukas can say anything else Philip moves out in front of him, pulling his shirt off. He undoes his button and unzips his pants, kicking them off until he’s down to his boxers. Lukas watches, transfixed.

“What are you doing?” Lukas asks. 

Without any pretense, Philip swings one leg over and straddles Lukas, settling in his lap. The cast goes to just about mid-thigh on Lukas’s left leg but Philip never seems too concerned about it, slowly rolling his hips. 

It sends sparks of pleasure up Lukas’s spine and he grips Philip’s hips by sheer muscle memory, his brain short circuiting. “I’m not fucking good enough for you, baby,” Lukas groans.

Philip keeps moving, holding on to Lukas’s shoulders. Their faces are so close together. “You create these situations so you have a reason to say that shit,” Philip whispers, looking at him from under long lashes. “You are good enough. You’re what I want. So stop it.”

Lukas doesn’t say anything, so Philip drives his hips down more firmly. Lukas tips his head back, moaning, and he sees stars.

“Lukas.”

“Uh-huh.”

Philip licks along Lukas’s lower lip and Lukas opens his mouth wider, craving him. 

“Stop it,” Philip says. “No more of this not good enough shit. Not to Rose. Not to me. Not to yourself. Okay?” He kisses him long and hard then, his purpose clear.

“Okay,” Lukas breathes, and hopes he can hold onto that statement.

Philip kisses along the line of Lukas’s jaw, moving harder and faster against him. “Now c’mon and make me come, huh?” he whispers, and Lukas doesn’t know how he survives him, every single day.

~

Changing Lukas’s underwear is a bitch, but sponge baths are his favorite. Rose was supposed to do it as per the nursing guidelines, but she gave Philip a good long talk on how to do it right and left him to it. All three of them silently thanked God that things turned out that way. 

Lukas watches as Philip walks back into the living room, dressed in something that’s not his pajamas. “You’re going somewhere?” he asks.

“Night shoot,” Philip says, looking over at him as he loads up his camera bag. “I told you.”

Lukas tries to wrack his brain but he can’t remember. “When will you be back?” he asks.

“Not sure,” Philip says, hoisting his bag onto his shoulder. “Hopefully not too late. You want me to put you in bed?”

“No,” Lukas says.

“You’re not gonna sleep there,” Philip says, narrowing his eyes. 

“I’ll go to bed when you get back,” Lukas says.

“Could be late,” Philip says.

“Well….” Lukas trails off, shrugging. 

Philip sighs. “You gonna watch a movie or something?” 

Lukas looks out the window, and he hears Philip click his tongue, sighing more audibly this time. 

“Well, don’t let any of them catch you. It’ll be really easy to just roll you off to jail.”

Lukas snorts, shaking his head. “I’m a very subtle spy,” he says.

Philip walks over, kissing him for a few moments before pulling back, brushing his hair from his eyes. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” Lukas says. 

Once Philip is gone Lukas allows himself to be annoyed at his loneliness, at how he’d like to make love to Philip the way he did before the goddamn accident. He watches out the window for a while, the sisters doing yoga to some loud music, the young couple eating a candlelit dinner, the Larsons playing fetch with their dog close to the rose bushes. Lukas wonders if that handsome man minds the dog getting so close to his plants, and as soon as he thinks of him he sees him and his young wife arguing in their living room. They’re close to each other’s faces and there’s no mistaking the intensity of the fight, and for a second Lukas is afraid he’s gonna witness some domestic abuse. But the wife just pushes the husband away, says something else and marches off into their bedroom.

It feels very quiet.

Lukas watches him stand there for a minute, his hands balled into fists, and then he walks over and sits on the couch, lighting up a cigarette. Lukas keeps watching, to see if he’s gonna make another move, and then the lights in the bedroom go dark.

Lukas sighs, sending a text to Philip that he knows he won’t answer.

_Our neighbors are weird. I’d much rather be gazing at you right now._

~

Lukas tries to watch Die Hard for the hundredth time and falls asleep, his head lolling back awkwardly until he manages to shift further down in the wheelchair.

He isn’t sure how long he’s been out when he hears it. A slam, then a woman’s voice yelling _Don’t!_ It startles him awake and he looks around, out the window, but everything is dark. He listens for another moment or two but there’s nothing. He’s assuming Philip isn’t home, since he’s still out in the living room, and he sighs. He picks up his phone from his lap and texts him again. 

_Hope you’re coming home soon._

He drifts back to sleep.

~

He’s almost sure he’s dreaming it, but he wakes up about three or four times throughout the early, early morning hours, and he blearily sees the handsome man walking in and out of his apartment with a suitcase each time. Lukas is so tired he can barely concentrate, but he has the presence of mind to check the clock every time he sees him leaving. Almost an hour between each movement. 

He’s so fucking tired but he texts Philip again. _Babe come home please, worried._

~

The next time he wakes up he’s in bed. He shifts a little bit and winces, groaning, the cast like a huge anvil dragging him down. He feels a hand rubbing his shoulder. 

“Hey sleepyhead,” Philip’s voice says.

Lukas hums a little bit, closing his eyes tight and turning his face into the pillow. “How the hell did you get me in here?” he asks.

“Superhuman strength,” Philip says, kissing his shoulder. “You were fucking dead on your feet, and somehow that made you a lot more pliant and easy to get into bed.”

“Were you out all night?” Lukas asks, clearing his throat.

“Dangerous, huh?” Philip asks, playfully.

“When did you get home, for real?” Lukas asks, popping his eye open. Philip is stretched out beside him, one arm propping his head up.

“Like four thirty,” Philip says. “So annoying. Everything went wrong, as per typical.”

“But you figured it out?” Lukas asks.

“As per typical,” Philip says. “The raise was warranted and they know it.”

Lukas smiles to himself, half of it smashed into the mattress. “Of course,” he says.

“You sleep okay in your stupid perch by the window?” Philip asks.

“I saw some shit, Philip,” Lukas says, talking out of one corner of his mouth. “I heard, and saw, some fucking shit.”

“What do you mean?” Philip asks, cocking his head. 

Lukas groans, pulling himself up, and with Philip’s help he leans against the headboard. “We should actually get back out there so I can see what’s going on.”

“Not yet,” Philip says, a hand on his shoulder. His brows are furrowed when Lukas looks at him. “Explain first.”

Lukas sighs, wondering what the fuck has happened since he’s been asleep. “Well, I don’t know, it was like one in the morning and I heard this sorta crash, and a woman’s voice yelling _Don’t!_ And then I was sufficiently freaked for like, ten minutes and then nothing else happened so I drifted off.”

“Mhm.” Philip is looking at him like he’s crazy.

“And like, as much as I do it, it isn’t really comfortable sleeping in the chair, so I kept waking up. And like every hour I would wake up and see that handsome dude, the one on the third floor across the way?”

“Yeah?”

“He’d leave his apartment with his suitcase, come back after a while, and then leave again a little bit later. It was so fucking weird.”

“You weren’t dreaming this?” Philip asks. 

“Definitely not,” Lukas says. “Something was like, going on. I don’t know what it was, but it was something. Something bad.” Philip looks at him like he doesn’t believe him and Lukas sighs. “You gonna be around today?” he asks.

“Day off to spend with you,” Philip says, giving him a big smile.

“Okay,” Lukas says, a sense of calm coming over him at the thought of Philip staying with him all day. “Can you help me back out there?”

“Yes sir,” Philip says. “Looks like it’s just about time to spy on the neighbors and jump to big conclusions.”

Lukas glares at him.

~

Things across the courtyard are quiet, which makes Lukas all the more suspicious. The handsome man is alone in his living room, and the bedroom is dark, so Lukas can’t tell if the wife is in there or not. But he knows she’s not. They would have seen her already. Rose shows up early and sticks a thermometer in Lukas’s mouth before she even says hello to him. He huffs, leaning on his fist as she and Philip flutter around. They go on and on about the heat for a while, and Rose turns up their fan in the corner.

“Lukas had quite a night last night,” Philip says.

Lukas mutters “let me tell it” but it comes out unintelligible.

“Oh yeah?” Rose asks. “While you were out at the night shoot?”

Lukas is annoyed she remembered. 

“Yeah,” Philip says, not skipping a beat. “Apparently that guy that lives across the way—”

“The attractive one?”

“Yeah—”

Lukas huffs again and pulls the thermometer out of his mouth. “He isn’t that attractive. He’s like, classically handsome, but I’m a lot more attractive. I’m interesting looking.”

Philip snorts. “Don’t worry your pretty little head.”

Lukas glares as Rose snatches the thermometer away from him, shaking her head at the reading but declining to share it.

“Well,” Philip says. “Lukas thinks something weird is going on.”

“I think he killed his wife,” Lukas says, definitively.

Philip widens his eyes at him. “Earlier you thought something was going on, now you’ve jumped to murder? What the hell, Lukas?”

“She’s nowhere to be found, she’s not over there,” Lukas says, gesturing towards the window. “And he left his apartment over and over again in the early hours of the morning, Rose. With a briefcase.” Maybe he does sound a little crazy. But he’s not gonna back down until he sees the wife up and around.

Rose narrows her eyes, clicking her tongue. “Maybe he’s stepping out on her.”

“That’s probably it,” Philip says.

“No,” Lukas says, shaking his head. That doesn’t feel like it. This feels a lot more sinister. “She’s not there right now. He did something with her.”

“Look at him,” Rose says, gazing up. Lukas follows her eyes and sees the man on the phone in his living room. “Looks like the kind of guy who’d cheat on his wife. And that’s the young one, right?”

“Yeah,” Philip says, and he’s looking now too. 

“I think it’s more than that, guys,” Lukas says, scratching a little around the top of his cast. “She’s not there, she hasn’t been there all morning.”

“She probably went out when she realized her man was cheating on her,” Rose says.

“Could have happened when we were sleeping,” Philip says. “You missed a big chunk of time from when you saw him going in and out.”

“Yeah, I know,” Lukas says, with a sigh. His heart jolts when he sees the man glance up and out at their neighborhood, and he quickly grabs onto the wheel of his chair and maneuvers backwards. “Shit, get out of sight, he’s looking out his window.” Lukas reaches out and grabs Philip’s wrist, tugging him towards him.

“Everybody’s doing that, doofus, including you,” Rose says, but she moves back into the room all the same.

“I don’t want him to see us,” Lukas says.

“You gotta chill out, babe,” Philip says, rubbing the back of Lukas’s neck. “You’re gonna give yourself an ulcer.”

Lukas watches as the man looks down, and all three of them follow his gaze.

“Oh,” Philip says. “It’s that pretty black and white dog that belongs to that couple...the Larsons?”

“Yeah,” Lukas says. “And it’s digging in that dude’s garden.”

They’re all quiet for a minute and Lukas feels the hair on his arms stand on end as he watches the man’s face, staring down at that dog. 

“That’s not an ordinary expression,” Lukas says. “He looks pissed off.”

“Well, that’s his garden,” Rose says.

“It looks like he’s hiding something,” Lukas says. The man looks around, peering out the window, back and forth. “Look,” Lukas says. “Look at him.”

“He is acting weird,” Philip acquiesces, and Lukas’s heart soars. 

“Maybe he thinks someone’s watching him,” Lukas says, rubbing his thumb over the pulse point in Philip’s wrist.

“Because someone is!” Rose exclaims, and they both whip around to look at her.

Lukas glares. “Philip, you think you could grab me those binoculars we used when we went camping?”

“Jesus,” Rose says, rolling her eyes.

“Sure,” Philip says.

“No wait,” Lukas says, getting a better idea. “Get me that camera of yours with the huge ass lens, that’ll be better.”

Philip laughs, snorting, and Rose walks over and grabs her purse.

“I’m out,” she says. “Tell me when the lunacy levels go down a little bit over here.”

“I’ll text you,” Philip says, grinning as he walks over and grabs his big camera off the bookcase.

Rose hums her response, walking over to the door and letting it shut rather hard behind her. Lukas watches the man walk over to something on his counter, and Philip hands him the camera just in time. Lukas holds it up and looks through the viewfinder, zooming in. It’s like he’s right next to him, and he can tell why Philip loves this camera. He watches the man take a brown paper bag, and when he reaches inside he pulls out something wrapped up—a huge, monster saw.

“Holy shit,” Lukas says.

“What is it?” Philip asks. “I can barely see, he’s holding something?”

“Look,” Lukas says, handing him the camera.

Philip takes it and Lukas watches his face change before he looks back out the window. It isn’t obvious in the way that there’s blood and guts all over the thing, but it’s sure fucking weird. The man transfers it somewhere out of sight and balls up the brown paper bag, tossing it in the trash.

“What’s the explanation for that?” Lukas asks, as Philip lowers the camera.

“Maybe…maybe…”

“Philip,” Lukas says, raising his eyebrows. “Something weird is happening.”

Philip looks really cute for a second, shifting his lips back and forth, and Lukas gets distracted. Philip seems to notice. “It’s probably fine,” Philip says, putting the camera aside on the end table. 

Lukas narrows his eyes. 

“You look really good right now,” Philip says, and he sits in Lukas’s lap.

“Yeah right,” Lukas says, looking at Philip’s perfect face. _Nothing compared to you._

Philip nuzzles their noses together. “You do.”

“You’re distracting me with your body,” Lukas says, automatically wrapping his arms around Philip’s waist.

Philip touches his cheek, leaning in to kiss him. “Is it working?” he asks, softly.

Lukas cuts his eyes over to the window again, but Philip kisses him once more, slipping his tongue into his mouth. Lukas closes his eyes again and thinks _of fucking course it is._

~

Philip lounges there in Lukas’s lap and they just make out lazily, Lukas simultaneously cursing this fucking cast for making things so difficult and reveling in how amazing Philip feels in his arms.

But his mind keeps wandering. The man left a little bit ago in just an undershirt and pants and Lukas had tried to act like he wasn’t too interested, tugging Philip in tighter. But where the fuck did that asshole go dressed like that? He’s usually so put together.

“Pay attention to me,” Philip whispers, his lips swollen from all the kissing. “Stop sneaking peeks at the window.”

“I’m not,” Lukas says, and kisses him again. But it feels like he’s going crazy. Like he’s a fucking detective or some shit. He can’t let it go. “I just—I can’t wrap my mind around this.”

Philip laughs a little bit, smiling, and he presses a long kiss to Lukas’s cheek. “What? Him?”

“Where was he going dressed like that? What’s up with all these phone calls? Why would he kill her?” Lukas asks.

Philip kisses his chin. “We don’t know that he killed her. She’s probably on a trip, like, visiting family or something.”

Lukas isn’t so sure but he presses their lips together again. “How hard do you think it is to cut up a body?”

Philip hums, narrowing his eyes. “This is not a sexy conversation.”

“I know,” Lukas says, sighing. He kisses Philip over and over. “I gotta chill, I gotta stop thinking about this, I gotta—oh shit, he’s back.” Lukas looks up, sees the man unlocking his front door and going back in.

Philip snorts, shaking his head. He kisses the tip of Lukas’s nose and gets up, walking over and collapsing on the couch. 

“Baby,” Lukas says, reaching out for him, but he doesn’t take his eyes off the man. “Look, babe, he’s got a bag—oh my God, there’s rope in it, Philip, he has a thing—a coil of rope.”

Philip looks and they both watch as the man takes a long length of rope out of the bag, twisting it in his hands.

“This is just ridiculous,” Philip says. “Why would a murderer let the world see all this shit through his open window? He wouldn’t. It’s too obvious. He’s gotta be like, renovating or some shit.”

“Where is she?” Lukas asks, throwing out his hands. “She’s not anywhere. Not since I heard a woman’s voice yell ‘don’t’ like she was being attacked.”

“You yell ‘don’t’ when I try to eat the last slice of pizza,” Philip says.

Lukas glares at him.

“You’ve had too much time on your hands,” Philip says, turning to look out the window. “And now you’re coming up with this whole scenario for this dude…”

He stops talking and Lukas follows his gaze.

The man is standing in the bedroom and the mattress is folded up, sitting beside a giant crate. The man puts the rope coil on top of the crate and seems to survey the room.

“What the fuck,” Philip says. 

“Yeah,” Lukas says, his heart in his throat. “Uh, yeah.”

~

They watch him for a while but nothing much happens other than him falling asleep on the couch. Philip sits in Lukas’s lap during dinner, and searches on his phone. Lukas feels a new sense of purpose now that Philip is completely on his side, the weird fucking crate and rolled up bed having firmly convinced him that Lukas is on to something.

“Found it,” Philip says. “Ryan and Bella Kane. They live in apartment 302.”

“Good to know,” Lukas says, opening his mouth when Philip holds out a piece of broccoli on his fork. “Good work,” he says, chewing.

Philip smiles, nodding at him. “Now we know who we’re working with. Ryan Kane.”

“Ryan Kane,” Lukas repeats, looking up at the dark apartment across the way.

Ryan fucking Kane.


	2. Chapter 2

Helen never sounds like she knows how to behave when they have her on the speakerphone. But Lukas knows he can accomplish more when he has Philip to back him up. She loves Lukas because he’s dating Philip, but Philip is her son, and the apple of her goddamn eye. Ever since he lost his mom and Helen and Gabe adopted him, Helen has been there for every problem Philip managed to have. 

The phone sits in the middle of the table next to the champagne bottle that Lukas isn’t partaking in, because he wants to stay vigilant. Philip and Rose, on the other hand, keep refilling their glasses, despite the fact that it’s ten in the goddamn morning. They always take mimosas to the next goddamn level.

“So yeah,” Lukas says, glaring at the other two. “The bed was all rolled up. Length of rope, weird-ass crate. The saw.”

“Right,” Helen says, sounding less than convinced.

“It does look strange, Helen,” Philip says, pouring a little more orange juice in with his champagne.

“I think they’re both going insane, Sheriff Torrance,” Rose says. 

“I think that Rose shouldn’t even be over here because she’s not here in a professional capacity and I don’t want her here if she’s just judging me,” Lukas says, maintaining eye contact with her. 

She narrows her eyes.

Philip takes another drink.

Helen laughs into the receiver. “You know I can’t do much, Lukas. I’m just a sheriff in Tivoli, you’d have to actually call the police, and with your evidence they’re not gonna do much.”

Lukas sighs, frustrated, and he scratches around the top of his cast, the itch underneath driving him insane. “But doesn’t it sound like something is going on?”

“I mean, possibly,” she says. “I’m gonna come into town and see you guys, take a look myself. See if I get a vibe from him.”

“Thank you,” Lukas says. “I really appreciate it, I swear.”

“Don’t worry,” she says.

“Thank you, Helen,” Philip says, leaning in close to the phone. “Love you!”

“Yeah, we love you,” Lukas emphasizes, because he is really grateful for her to come down here and not just blow him off. 

“Love you too,” she says. “See you soon!”

“Bye Sheriff Torrance!” Rose yells, clearly already on her way to being drunk.

“Bye guys!” And then there’s a dial tone.

Lukas glares at Rose. “You are getting drunk at my house.”

“Our house,” Philip says.

“Our house,” Lukas quickly corrects. 

“I am not drunk,” Rose says. “I can handle my alcohol a lot better than your little boo here.” She holds up her glass in Philip’s direction and Philip laughs, holding his up too.

“You gotta make me sound like an idiot to Helen,” Lukas says, quickly wheeling away from the table and over towards his place at the window. 

“Yeah, but that’s just for fun!” Rose calls. “I’m actually starting to wonder if this is more than some asshole stepping out on his wife.”

Luks grits his teeth, not even sparing her a glance. “Don’t jump on the train now that I’ve got a cop involved.”

Philip walks over and sits on the couch across from Lukas. “Okay, I don’t wanna be like, gross, but okay—let’s say you’re right.”

Lukas nods, staring over at Ryan’s apartment. Ryan is in the living room reading a magazine, which somehow makes him look more suspicious than he usually does. The bedroom is dark, but Lukas can still see the outline of the rolled up mattress.

“Where do you think he like…did it?” Philip asks, wincing.

“What?” Rose asks, from behind them. “Killed her? Cut her up?”

“Rose,” Philip says, shooting her a glare. 

“What?” she says, throwing her arms out. “That’s what you’re asking, right?”

“Let’s not talk about details,” Lukas says, with a sigh. He doesn’t know much about the wife, but he knows she’s a person like the three of them are. Innocent, for all he knows. If she’s dead, she probably didn’t fucking deserve it. He grimaces looking over at Ryan sitting, casually reading a goddamn magazine, and he hopes he’s wrong. He hopes she’s just off somewhere. Hell, he hopes Ryan is just cheating on her.

But fuck, it doesn’t look like it.

“Look,” Philip says, pointing out the window. They can see the street through the alleyway and a big truck is sitting there, two guys getting out and heading into Ryan’s apartment building.

Lukas sits up a little bit, his eyes widening, and he hears Rose approaching behind them. 

“Who are they?”

“Are they going to his apartment?” Philip asks, getting up too, walking over to Lukas’s wheelchair. 

“Look, they’re in the hall,” Rose says. 

Lukas watches them, watches as they get out of the elevator on the third floor, watches as they appear in the hallway window outside Ryan’s door. He immediately panics when he realizes they’re here for Ryan. He cranes his neck and looks down at the truck. “Can you guys see a name on that thing?”

“I’ll go downstairs and look,” Philip says, quickly moving towards the door. 

“I’ll go with you,” Rose says. 

Lukas’s heart drops and he tries to twist around, torn between watching them and watching the men go into Ryan’s apartment. “Philip—Rose, make sure he doesn’t get hurt—neither one of you, but shit, Philip—”

“I understand your priorities, Waldenbeck,” Rose yells, waving her hand over her shoulder. Philip is already breezing out the door and Lukas sighs, hearing it shut behind them. He turns to the window again, his heart hammering in his chest. 

The men are inside the apartment now, Ryan leading them into the bedroom.

“Holy fuck,” Lukas whispers to himself. “They’re taking the goddamn crate away.” He watches the three of them walk over to it, the guys measuring it, exchanging a few words, and Lukas wishes he had the fucking place bugged.

Just as the guys are lifting the crate up and edging it out of the bedroom Lukas looks down and sees Philip and Rose rushing through the courtyard and out to the alley. 

“Okay,” Lukas says, watching them, his eyes darting back and forth between the truck and the men carrying the crate through the living room, Ryan holding the front door open for them. Lukas wonders what the fuck is in there. Is Bella fucking in there?

He looks down, sees Philip and Rose circling the truck. “Okay, dorks, just—get the name,” Lukas breathes, watching the men load the crate into the elevator. He sees Philip walk back around and he actually gets into the open driver’s seat, which sends Lukas’s heart into overdrive. He doesn’t think either one of them brought their phones, they rushed out so fast. They’re going way too slow. Taking their goddamn time. “Okay, come back,” he whispers. “Come back.”

He sees them both look up and then Philip jumps out of the truck, grabbing Rose’s wrist and pulling her towards the courtyard. And right then the two men walk out the side door of the apartment, heading to the back of the truck with the crate. Lukas looks up to make sure Ryan isn’t watching Philip and Rose, but instead he isn’t anywhere to be seen. The bedroom is still dark and Lukas narrows his eyes, eager for Philip and Rose to get the hell back up here. 

Philip’s phone buzzes on the dining room table and Lukas sighs, wheeling himself over there. He picks it up and sees that it’s Helen. _Just got on my way._

The door opens then and the two of them rush back in like they’ve committed some extremely exciting act.

“Way to take your damn time!” Lukas says.

“We wanted to see if there was anything weird in the truck!” Philip says.

“They took the crate,” Lukas says. “Did you get the company name?”

“Edison Shipping,” Rose says. “Nothing either of us have ever heard before.”

“Shit,” Lukas says, glancing back at the apartment again, still no Ryan in sight. “He got that thing out of there fast.”

Philip looks at him, and there’s a strange sort of worry in his eyes. 

Lukas wishes he had never seen this shit.

~

Rose leaves a little while later and Helen shows up right on time, informing them that Gabe couldn’t come but wanted to add his support to their cause.

“He thinks you’re right,” she says, sitting down on the couch once Philip leads her inside. “Probably because he’d jump to the same conclusions if he was laid up like you are.”

Lukas narrows his eyes.

“He’s not exactly laid up,” Philip says, gesturing towards him. “I mean, he’s in a wheelchair. He can get around.”

“And I can walk pretty—listen, a truck came to pick up that damn crate we told you about,” Lukas says, shaking his head. “Edison Shipping.”

“And what do you think is in this crate?” Helen asks, raising her eyebrows.

Lukas looks at Philip.

“Something bad,” Philip fills in.

Helen sighs, a small smile on her face. “I know all of this looks strange to you from the outside. But there are probably perfectly normal explanations for everything that’s happening.”

“For a saw?” Lukas asks.

“Was there blood on it?” Helen asks.

“No, but—”

“Work around the house,” she says. “I have saws.”

“The mattress,” Philip says, knocking her on the shoulder. “What’s up with that? That’s weird.”

“People get new mattresses, Philip,” she says. “You’re supposed to do it every five years.”

Philip hums to himself, looking out the window. Lukas looks too and they can see Ryan sitting on his couch, watching TV. He’s actually laughing, that big stupid smile on his face. Big stupid murderer sitting there laughing.

“Where is she, then?” Lukas asks, still staring Ryan down.

“Maybe they split up,” Helen says. “Maybe she went on a trip. Maybe a family member is ill. Honestly, Lukas, it could be any number of things other than her being dead.” She looks out the window then too. “This man isn’t panicked, he’s just sitting around. That isn’t the face of a murderer.”

Lukas is so used to thinking of him that way that he heartily disagrees, but he doesn’t say anything. 

“But for you two,” Helen says, “because I love you, I’m gonna look into it. Look into the shipping company, talk to some of my NYPD contacts and try to get some information on this guy and his wife. Do some poking around of my own. For you.”

Lukas wilts under his relief, because he was so ready for her to come all the way here just to lecture them. “Thank you Helen. Thank you.”

Philip leans in, kissing her on the cheek.

“Uh-huh,” Helen says, smiling softly. She ruffles Philip’s hair and gets to her feet. “I’ll be back around later.”

“You’re leaving now?” Philip asks. “You just got here!”

“Gonna get on this,” Helen says. “Ease Lukas’s mind. I’m only here for you guys, we have some cases open at home that I don’t exactly trust Tony with longterm.”

“Alright,” Philip says. “We’re still good for the get together next weekend, right?”

“Of course,” Helen says. “This doesn’t affect that.”

“Thank you so much for coming by special, Helen,” Lukas calls, watching her go.

“Anything for you, Lukas,” Helen says, shaking her head at him.

Philip beams at him once they’re alone again, holding his head high. 

“You look cute,” Lukas says, scratching around the top of his cast again. 

“I knew she’d help us,” Philip says. “She’s been so happy lately, that I’m living here and things are going well. You know how she is—”

“Yeah,” Lukas says, with a sigh. He’s been consistently worried about disappointing Helen, which goes back to the whole Philip is too good for him thing. But he tries to wipe that thought from his mind, because he isn’t supposed to be thinking it, per Philip’s orders.

“But she’s really happy,” Philip continues, like he’s trying to convince him. “She is. She knows I’m happy here, with you.”

“And now she’s helping us with our murder case while I’m laid up in the apartment,” Lukas says, embarrassed of how insane he looks. “Perfect. I’m sure that’s exactly what she saw in our future.”

“I love thinking about our future,” Philip says, sighing contentedly and looking up at the ceiling. “I picture a nice place in Manhattan. Four dogs.”

“ _Four_ dogs?” Lukas asks, laughing.

“At least,” Philip says. He gets up then, walking over and sitting in Lukas’s lap. He presses a kiss to his cheek as Lukas wraps his arms around him. “You writing out _WILL YOU MARRY ME_ in the dirt with your bike.”

Lukas snorts, a jolt rushing through his heart. “That sounds romantic.”

“I expect nothing less,” Philip says, kissing him softly.

“I bet I can do something better,” Lukas says, between kisses. “Something way more dramatic. Because I am, after all, me.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Philip says, dragging his mouth down to kiss along Lukas’s neck.

Lukas draws in a breath, closing his eyes.

“Shoo!” a voice yells, way too loud. “Get away!”

They both whip their heads up and glance out the window. Ryan is downstairs now, by the rose bushes, and he’s stomping towards the Larsons’ dog, which is digging in one of the corner plots. 

“Get out of there, dog!”

Philip cranes his neck, his brows furrowed, and the dog rushes away once Ryan gets closer. 

“Huh,” Philip says. “He seems kinda….look.”

“What?” Lukas asks, and when he looks he sees Ryan kneeling down, tending to the disturbed dirt. He’s got this look on his face, pure worry and anger, and he tries to rearrange the dirt, cover up the hole. He seems frantic, but like he’s trying to hide it. “Jesus. Something’s fucking down there, baby.”

“I bet there is,” Philip says. 

Lukas watches Ryan, and wishes he could get into his head. _Where’s your wife, asshole? What’d you bury down there?_

~

They both fall asleep laying there and watching him, Philip’s head tucked under Lukas’s chin, and he’s holding onto him so tight because he keeps feeling like he’s gonna let him topple out of his lap and onto the ground. He dreams weird shit, him walking fine save for dragging the cast around like he’s always gonna have it, and Ryan is following him, silently. Smiling, his face a mask, and if Lukas looks at him too long it starts to seem like his skin is translucent, his skull cracking and molding.

A knock on the door startles them both awake.

“Fuck,” Philip breathes, bracing his hand on Lukas’s chest. “We fell asleep.”

Lukas rubs at his eyes, one hand around Philip’s waist still while he looks at his watch. “Four fucking hours,” he says, glancing out the window as Philip gets up. The apartment is dark, and Lukas wonders if Ryan is even there. 

Philip walks over to the door and when he opens it Helen is there. She walks inside, looking back and forth between the two of them.

“You guys fall asleep?” she asks.

“Yeah,” Philip says, rubbing his eyes. “Which is probably good because I have a shoot in couple hours, I won’t be tired.”

Helen clicks her tongue in that mom way she does sometimes. “Well, apparently, on that morning you say everything happened, people saw Ryan taking his wife out of the apartment. And I found a train ticket for her in the system, on the way to Pennsylvania where her family lives. So….seems cut and dry. Some kind of family thing, like I said.”

Lukas just stares at her. “What people?” he asks. “Who did you ask?”

“Their neighbors,” she says. “That young couple that lives across the way, and the sisters that live next door.”

Lukas scoffs. “Listen, I don’t have—I watch these people, okay? That young couple is always having sex and making out, they’re not looking at anybody else.”

Philip snorts, ducking his head down.

“And those sisters are so wrapped up in their own drama that I’m sure they didn’t notice any Bella leaving the apartment early in the morning before he started making his briefcase runs. By the way, what’s the explanation for that, huh?”

“He’s a business man, retired cop, actually,” Helen says, with such an air of confidence that it’s almost offensive. “He has a little office and I’m sure he was just forgetful that morning, going back and forth.”

“Forgetful,” Lukas says, narrowing his eyes. “You got any more eyewitnesses seeing him in this little office space?”

“Didn’t go that far,” Helen says, cocking her head and looking at Philip like she’s trying to get him on her side. “I thought you hearing about the people seeing the wife and the train ticket would settle it.”

“I’m sure they don’t even have their days straight,” Lukas says, shaking his head. 

“Why are you so stuck on this?” Helen asks, and before she gives him a chance to answer she looks at Philip, who’s standing beside her. “Are you with him?”

“Of course I’m with him,” Philip says, and warmth washes over Lukas. “I believe him.”

“You don’t believe those people who said they saw the woman?” she asks.

“Like he said, they could be mistaken, days do run together. Or…he could have someone in on this. Helping him.”

“Jesus, Philip,” Helen says. “You really need to take him out of the house more often, get some fresh air, do something with your days—”

“I don’t—like walking on the crutches,” Lukas says, gritting his teeth, “and I don’t want anyone seeing me wheeling around like a goddamn old person with this huge thing on my leg—this is off topic—did anybody see her get on the train?” He stares at her, and she’s quiet. “No,” he says. “Nobody did.”

“Did anybody see him kill her?” she asks, and this time Lukas is quiet. “No,” she says. “Nobody did. Innocent until proven guilty, remember?” 

“Yeah, and I’m trying to prove it before all the evidence is gone,” Lukas says. He feels insane. Like his mind went as soon as his bones broke and he’s been running on fumes ever since. He sighs, and Philip crosses the room, sliding a hand around his shoulders, rubbing the back of his neck. “You think maybe, you can see what the crate is? Try to track it?”

“Yeah, I’m still waiting on the info,” Helen says. “I’ll go and try to get a rush on it.”

“I’m sorry, Helen,” Lukas says, shaking his head. “I just…I don’t know, I have a fucking terrible feeling about this guy, this whole thing. After you left earlier the dog was digging something up in his garden and he yelled at it and shooed it away and it was just like…way too dramatic. There’s something going on.”

Helen stares at him for a moment and she nods. “I’m gonna go back and try to rush this out.”

“You don’t have to leave,” Philip says. 

“I want you guys to relax,” Helen says, heading for the door. “I’ll let you know tomorrow what’s going on with the truck, but I want you to entertain the idea that it might all be nothing, okay?”

Lukas nods, just to humor her. 

~

He’s alone again within the next hour and a half, Philip promising he’ll be back early. Lukas watches for long enough to make him feel like an asshole, and then he takes about twenty minutes for a good old existential crisis. He rolls himself around the room and feels like an idiot, a lunatic, once again too fucking stupid for Philip and his whole family. He keeps waiting for Bella to show up, walk right through that door, and he looks her up on Facebook and nearly loses his fucking mind when he sees her phone number. He looks up—Ryan is still out of his apartment, and Lukas wonders where the fuck he is. Her profile picture is of the two of them, grinning and gazing into each other’s eyes. It doesn’t seem like the couple he saw arguing. 

He hovers over the phone number. She might answer. He could speak to her, get some answers from the horse’s mouth and end this whole thing for good. But if she doesn’t answer, he can imagine hearing the phone ringing here, reverberating off the walls of the courtyard. Can imagine Ryan coming home and seeing his number there, on his dead wife’s phone. Can imagine him looking up his number and finding where he lives—

A chill runs down Lukas’s spine and he closes Bella’s Facebook page.

He opens his laptop and watches old videos of himself riding for a while, pining for his life before the accident. He knows he’s almost there, almost to the finish line, but all of this shit hanging over his head makes him feel like he’s never gonna get this cast off. Like he’s gonna be tethered to murder and fear and pain and Ryan fucking Kane until the end of time.

He hears Philip’s voice in the video, cheering him on with such vigor from the sidelines. Lukas closes his eyes and tunes out everything but Philip. Philip, the most gorgeous, perfect thing in his life. 

He’s disturbed by a text, and he sees it’s from his dad. They haven’t talked since last week, because dad can never stand when he gets too mopey about his leg.

_Less than a week!_ is all that it says.

“Yep,” Lukas says out loud, but he doesn’t answer. 

~

He’s struggling to stand over by the dining room table when he sees Ryan come back into his house. 

“Fuck,” Lukas mutters, wavering on one foot, and he throws himself back into the wheelchair with a little too much force, groaning. It’s already dark outside and he tries to quickly wheel back to the window, noticing that Ryan looks like he’s in just as big of a hurry. Lukas grabs Philip’s big camera on the way over, putting on the break.

He sees Ryan rush into the apartment and straight into the bedroom, where he goes out of sight for a second and then puts a suitcase down on the bedframe. He goes over to the dresser and starts pulling out clothes, stuffing them haphazardly into the case, when he stops, staring down at something.

“What is it, weirdo?” Lukas mutters, bringing the camera up to his eye so he can look through the viewfinder. “What is it?”

He can see so much better through the camera and he watches as Ryan pulls out a small, black purse from the dresser. Lukas gasps, trying and failing to zoom in a little bit, refocusing the camera as Ryan starts going through the purse and taking things out. A wallet. A makeup bag. A ring. 

A fucking wedding ring.

He’s looking at it all like he knew it was there, like he’s counting it off and making sure of it, stuffing it all in there, including some papers and the ring. 

Lukas’s suspicions are renewed tenfold, and he opens up his group text with Helen and Philip.

_Our local creepo has her purse. Her purse, and all of her shit, and her wedding ring. I’m not wrong. Something has fucking happened._

~

Philip gets home about twenty minutes later, his eyes trained on the window from the moment he walks through the door. “Where’s the purse?” he asks.

Lukas feels wound tight over this whole thing, and he cracks his neck. “He stuffed it into his suitcase,” he says.

Philip walks over, dropping his bag on the couch and then moving to Lukas’s side immediately, starting to massage the back of his neck. “I wonder where he’s going,” Philip says. “If he leaves we’ve probably lost him. Then Helen will feel like shit when Bella goes missing.”

“Did she say anything to you privately?” Lukas asks. “She didn’t respond to the message.”

“No,” Philip says. “Hopefully she’s trying to figure out where the crate went, and that’ll lead her in the right direction.”

“I just…” Lukas starts, shaking his head. “If Bella left, why would she leave her purse behind?”

“She wouldn’t,” Philip says. “I work with all these girls and they don’t go anywhere without their purses, especially on big trips, no way. I don’t know who these eyewitnesses were that Helen spoke to—they could have seen a woman, sure, but it wasn’t Bella. No one pays attention to anything, they could have thought it was her when really they don’t even know what the hell she looks like. This guy is smart, he put on a show for anybody that was watching.” He runs his hand through Lukas’s hair and every part of Lukas’s body feels like it’s on fire. “You’re right, baby. This shit killed his wife.”

“God, Philip,” Lukas breathes, leaning back into his hand. 

“What?” Philip asks, still petting him. 

“You are so fucking hot,” Lukas says, looking up at him. “You’re so gorgeous, you’re so smart, you’re just…you’re just amazing. You’re awesome.”

Philip snorts, shaking his head. “You’re just saying that because I’m agreeing with you.”

“No,” Lukas says, gazing at Philip’s beautiful face. “I always think it. All the time. Fuck, you know how things with my dad were before I left, how I was…” He doesn’t even like to think about high school, when he was so stuck in the closet that he treated Philip like shit in the beginning because he was making him question everything he’d ever convinced himself about his sexuality. But Philip stayed put, gently tugged Lukas somewhere bright and beautiful. And Lukas found solace in his hands.

“Yeah,” Philip says.

“You just….you really make me feel like I belong somewhere. Belong to someone. Like I have you on my side no matter what.”

“You do,” Philip says, leaning down and kissing the top of Lukas’s head. “Always.”

“I love you,” Lukas whispers.

“I love you too,” Philip says. He cups his face in his hands and kisses Lukas slowly, drawing out that dizzy feeling in Lukas’s gut. They kiss for a couple long moments and Lukas’s head is spinning. He can’t take this Ryan shit right now, not right now, not when Philip is here and he’s so solidly on his side that he’ll even stand by him when he’s accusing a neighbor of murder from his fucking wheelchair. So he takes a quick glance out the window, sees that the apartment across the way is still dark. And he refuses to think about him past that.

“I need to taste you,” Lukas says, nipping at Philip’s lower lip. “Want you in my mouth.”

“Yeah?” Philip asks. “Like before?”

“Yes,” Lukas whispers. “Close the—close the fucking window, the blinds—I don’t wanna see anything but you.”

~

Philip gets Lukas laid down on the couch and Lukas watches him take his clothes off, piece by piece, their eyes locked and their breathing speeding up. Lukas reaches for him once he’s naked, desperate, and Philip straddles his upper chest, doesn’t waste any time before he slips his cock into Lukas’s waiting mouth.

Things have been fucking hard lately, sex-wise, in every sense of the phrase. The cast is so big and unwieldy that half the time they wind up getting off with Philip in Lukas’s lap in the wheelchair, both of them still fully clothed. But this—they did this once and fuck, Lukas wants it all the time. He feels overwhelmed by Philip, fucking into his mouth over and over again, his beautiful body trembling in Lukas’s arms.

“Oh, Lukas,” Philip groans, tipping his head back, and Lukas moans around Philip’s dick, tries to take him in deeper. His eyes water and this is amazing, amazing, exactly what he goddamn needed.

He works his fingers around to Philip’s ass and teases him for a moment before tentatively slipping one between his cheeks, flicking his eyes up to catch his reaction. Philip’s eyebrows knit together and he groans, breathing hard through his mouth, and his breath only gets faster when Lukas pushes one dry finger inside him. 

Lukas bobs his head and tries to keep his pace, fingering Philip in time with his thrusts. Philip tastes so good and Lukas drags his tongue along his length, savoring every inch of him. He knows he was made to have Philip’s cock in his mouth, and he sucks and licks and tries to make this the best blowjob Philip has ever had.

“You okay?” Philip asks, and when Lukas looks up he sees Philip peering down at him, eyes bright. He moans in response and nods, pushing his finger further into Philip, making him arch his back beautifully. “Jesus, Lukas.”

Lukas knows Philip is close from the way his cock is twitching and he takes him in as deep as he can without gagging, one tear racing down the side of his face. 

“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” Philip asks, hardly thrusting now, just writhing and shaking, his hands gripping the edge of the couch. “Oh, Lukas, I’m—I’m—ah—ah—”

And with that he comes into Lukas’s mouth, a familiar taste that Lukas never could have imagined liking in a former life but somehow can’t get enough of now. He swallows it down and pulls his finger out, holding tight to Philip’s hips as he rides out his orgasm. The debauched look on Philip’s face is one of the most gorgeous fucking things Lukas has ever seen, and he knows what’s coming when Philip pulls his cock out of Lukas’s mouth and starts moving down his body, his legs like jelly and his hands shaking as he pulls Lukas’s sweats down. He’s so careful with the cast, like he could maneuver around it in his sleep, and he wraps his plush lips around Lukas’s cock, taking him apart in less than a minute. Lukas isn’t even embarrassed. 

Philip climbs back up afterwards and collapses beside him, wiping his mouth.

“Time for a sponge bath,” Philip says, grinning.

“Guess so,” Lukas says, laughing a little bit. He feels a lot looser now, sated, happier, and he runs his hand through Philip’s hair, letting out contended sigh.

~

For some reason he feels safer with the window closed. It’s still hot, the records breaking every damn hour as the temperatures rise, but the sponge bath Philip gives him is like heaven, and Lukas thanks God for him. It sounds like some of the neighbors are having a party across the way, and Lukas knows Ryan probably wasn’t invited. He tries not to think about him.

They both get into pajamas (as if Lukas is ever wearing anything different) and lounge on the couch, Philip tracing soothing shapes into Lukas’s chest.

“When you get this thing off, I want a sponge bath,” Philip says, his head on Lukas’s shoulder. 

“Done,” Lukas says, laughing. “Absolutely.”

“You seem like you enjoy it,” Philip says. 

“Oh, I do,” Lukas says. “Especially because it’s you doing it.”

“So if it was Rose—”

“Nightmare,” Lukas says, closing his eyes as Philip laughs. “Absolute nightmare material and she knew it too.”

“What if—”

A blood curdling scream from outside startles them both into silence, and Philip immediately gets up and opens the window. 

“What is it?” Lukas asks, his heart in his throat, picturing all kinds of different scenarios, all of them bad. “What’s, what—”

“Jesus,” Philip says, his voice wavering. “The dog. The Larsons’ dog.”

“What about it?” Lukas asks, a long piercing note going off in his ears as the itch beneath the cast flares up and gets worse.

“It’s dead,” Philip says.

Lukas scoots over to the edge of the couch and cranes his neck so he can look out the window. Mr. and Mrs. Larson are down in the garden, cradling their dog’s limp body. The whole rest of the neighborhood are pulling up their blinds and peering down into the courtyard, like they’ve got front row seats to some Shakespearean tragedy.

“His neck is broken!” Mrs. Larson screams, sobbing. “Which one of you did this? Which one of you killed our dog?”

“Holy fuck,” Lukas whispers, his eyes straining.

Of course, no one answers her, but everyone is looking down. The wife of the young couple looks upset, her hand over her mouth. The sisters are both shaking their heads. The house where the party was raging has gone quiet, most of them out on the balcony muttering.  
“One of you murdered our dog!” Mrs. Larson yells, Mr. Larson trying to tug her away. “He was friendly, he was—he was—” She breaks down into tears and Lukas’s chest hurts.

“Look,” Philip says. “Look at this.”

Lukas follows his gaze and sees Ryan’s apartment is dark, save for the smallest flame of a cigarette. 

“The only asshole who didn’t come to his window,” Philip says. “That poor dog. He fucking killed that poor dog and he’s just sitting there in the dark listening.”

Mrs. Larson is still sobbing as her husband pulls her away, everyone still watching but Ryan. 

“It was getting close to something,” Lukas says, his throat tight. “Digging in the rose bushes.”

Lukas thought he was convinced before. But now he’s a thousand percent sure. And no one, not even Helen, can convince him otherwise.

Ryan Kane murdered his wife. And Lukas is determined to prove it.


	3. Chapter 3

Lukas has terrible dreams. 

The beginning of the bad, high school. A dim life where Philip didn’t put up with his shit and start dating him. A life where his father’s hand never stopped midair but always connected with its target, bruising him for all to see. A life where he was sad, alone, questioning.

Then dreams of that poor dog. He’s always loved dogs and he imagines knowing it, throwing a stick and watching it bring it back, its tail wagging. Then it’s dead, it’s broken body tossed in the courtyard like it was in real life, and Lukas is alone with it. Mrs. Larson’s screams echo all around him.

And then the worst of the dreams—Ryan has Philip. Ryan snaps Philip’s neck before Philip can even scream for Lukas, and then he’s gone. The whole world pitch black, silent, and as much as Lukas yells and clings to Philip’s body, there’s nothing he can do. Philip is gone. Philip is dead.

He wakes up with a short gasp and finds that he’s still in bed, Philip pressed up against him. He has his head on Lukas’s shoulder and one arm tight around his middle. Lukas sighs, tries to get his heart to settle down, and he hugs Philip tighter.

Philip hums a little bit, snuggling closer. “Bad dream?”

Lukas snorts. “How could you tell?”

Philip drags his hand up over the core of Lukas’s chest. “Your heart,” he whispers. 

Lukas’s phone buzzes on the bedside table and he sighs, reaching over and grabbing it. “Helen,” he says, and he’s sure Philip can feel his heartrate picking up again. He opens the text. _The crate was just Bella’s clothes, found it declared in a destination scan. In the same place where her train came in._

“Lukas,” Philip says. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

Lukas puts his phone aside, sighing. “I know. No, I know—it just means Helen is less likely to believe me. But this girl still hasn’t shown up.”

“Right,” Philip says. “And Helen probably knows that deep down.”

“She just thinks I’m being irrational,” Lukas says, rubbing his eyes.

“Listen, I’m sorry…you know how she is,” Philip says, kissing Lukas’s shoulder. “I’m with you, I believe you. We’re gonna figure this shit out.”

“How?” Lukas asks, shaking his head. “I mean, fuck, we’re not cops, we’re not detectives, I’m not even capable of walking around and I sure as shit don’t want you getting close to that fucker.”

“What about danger?” Philip asks, leaning in and kissing Lukas’s neck. “I can be dangerous. You know I can.”

Lukas sighs, shaking his head. “No, no, that’s not what I meant. Or will ever mean. You can’t—this guy is a real killer and I don’t even want him looking at you.”

“I’m kidding,” Philip says, against Lukas’s skin. “Kinda.”

“No kinda,” Lukas says, wrapping his arm around Philip’s shoulders and kissing his temple. “I love you. I need you safe.”

Philip hums, cuddling closer. “I’m safe. I’m here.”

Lukas doesn’t want him anywhere else.

~

Rose shows up that afternoon, and she arrives just in time for them to catch Ryan cleaning the bathroom. It’s just out of sight, mostly obscured by the dresser, but they see him going in and out wearing heavy gloves and holding bleach. It sometimes does feel like too much, to Lukas. Like one big weird fucking show to find out if anybody is watching. He hates this guy. He wishes this guy never moved in across from him.

“He’s really giving it a good scrub down,” Rose says. She chews around her sandwich for a minute, looking out the window much like Lukas has been, like she’s watching a television show. “Anything else said about the dog this morning? Poor thing.”

“Haven’t seen the Larsons at all,” Lukas says, looking over at their empty apartment. “I mean, I wouldn’t be hanging around the place where my dog was murdered.”

“Who the fuck could murder a dog?” Philip says, with venom. 

“Who the fuck could murder a person, Shea,” Rose says.

“Right,” Philip says, his face unchanged, his brows still furrowed. Lukas doesn’t wanna laugh and he covers his face a little bit, shaking his head.

“We need to find out what’s in the flower beds,” Rose says, putting her sandwich down with purpose.

“Yes!” Philip says, turning around and looking at her. “Good idea, that could get us somewhere.”

Lukas’s heart lurches. “No, weirdos! He’s right there, he’ll see you!” He realizes he was yelling and he clears his throat to try to cushion it a little bit. “You can’t—you can’t just dig in the flowers for all the world to see. Look what happened to the dog.”

Philip and Rose look at each other. “We need to get him out of the apartment,” Philip says.

“How?” 

“ _What?_ ” Lukas yells again, his eyes ready to pop out of his skull.

“What about a note under the door?” Philip asks, and then he looks over at Lukas. “We could write something menacing, like….like ‘what did you do with her?’ And then we can call him and tell him to meet us at the Red Cat on 3rd. And then while he’s gone we can go down there and dig up the garden. A big ruse. He should be gone for long enough.”

Lukas stares at him. “How long have you been thinking of this?” he asks, his voice wavering.

“Just now,” Philip says, his eyes bright. 

“I don’t know…” Lukas trails off, breathing a little harder. He hates how useless he is. It’s a great idea, but he doesn’t want Philip to be the one to do it. The danger seems to be creeping closer, and Lukas can’t stand the very goddamn idea of him getting hurt. “What if he doesn’t go?” Lukas asks. 

“He’ll definitely go,” Rose says. “This’ll be someone calling him out, he’ll know he’s under the microscope…and if he thinks this person is waiting at the bar, he’ll want to go and take a look at them.”

Lukas sighs, chewing on his lower lip.

“We can do something, Lukas,” Philip says. “You still have his phone number right?”

“Yeah,” Lukas says. It’s on the notepad on the coffee table, along with the address and a note from Philip that says _BIG EVIL KILLER._

“Baby, if we don’t do something,” Philip says, “nothing is gonna get done. Like we said, Helen’s like, abandoned us—”

“Also like we said, we’re not the cops,” Lukas says, softly. “We shouldn’t have to—”

“You started this shit, Lukas,” Rose says, raising her eyebrows at him. “This is all you. And we’re on our own. It’s not like we’re going over there and breaking into his house. The courtyard is a public space. We’re allowed to go down there and do whatever the hell we want.”

Lukas scratches around the top of his cast and the itch is outrageous now, maddening. “Okay,” he sighs, when he looks up into Philip’s eyes. 

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Lukas says. “Let’s write your damn note.”

They all move at once like they’re attached to each other, and Lukas rolls over to the desk by their bedroom door, Rose quickly pulling the chair aside. Lukas pulls a piece of paper from the printer and Philip quickly hands him a pen. 

“You want what you said?” Lukas asks.

“Yeah,” Philip says. “Plain and simple.”

There’s a rumble of thunder outside as Lukas writes it out, _WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HER?_ And pushes the paper away from him when he’s done, his heart hammering in his chest. Philip quickly grabs an envelope, folding up the note and putting it inside. 

“Don’t lick it,” Lukas says, grabbing his hand. “I don’t your spit on anything he touches.”

Philip snorts, shaking his head. “Okay, I’m gonna go slip it under the door, keep an eye on him and I’ll be back. We can call right after he’s read it.”

“You’re gonna go by yourself?” Lukas asks, watching him.

“Yeah,” Philip says, nodding at Rose. “We’ll both go to dig in the garden but I wanna be fast here.” He looks at Lukas and winks before he disappears out the door. 

Lukas sighs, rolling back over to the window. “If anything happens to him—”

“You blame yourself,” Rose says. “You’re the one that started all of this, and you know he’d stand by you even if you were the one killing people.”

There’s another rumble of thunder and the sky is getting dark with the threat of an incoming storm. Lukas grits his teeth and watches as Ryan starts packing his bag in his bedroom. 

“I guess he’s done with the bathroom,” Rose says, close behind Lukas.

“Yeah,” Lukas says, swallowing hard. Then he sees Philip walking through the courtyard, looking up and over his shoulder in their direction. Lukas’s breath immediately speeds up and he sits up a little bit. Philip goes in the building and he disappears for a second, briefly reappearing before getting into the elevator. 

“Look at him go,” Rose says. “He isn’t even thinking, he’s just doing.”

“He better be thinking,” Lukas says. The dangerous conversation they had days ago keeps popping into his head, and he hates himself. He should have never wished danger into Philip’s life, because there’s nothing he wants further from him. And now he’s closer to it than he’s probably ever been. 

Ryan is still packing when Philip gets out of the elevator. He looks slick, confident, and he glances out the hallway window and it almost looks like he’s smiling. 

“I think he might be showing off for you,” Rose says.

“I don’t want him to show off,” Lukas says. “I don’t care, I just—want him.”

“He’s okay,” Rose says. 

They watch as Philip bends down, slipping the note under the door. And when Ryan’s head whips around to look Lukas loses like ten years of his life. 

“Okay, go,” Lukas says, watching as Philip makes for the stairs. Ryan walks through his apartment and picks up the note, swiftly opening it up.

“Is he taking the stairs?” Rose asks, as Ryan reads.

“He’s taking the stairs,” Lukas says, his hand over his heart. He’s terrified, but he has to admit, he’s impressed by Philip doing this. Jesus, he’s sexy and he’s brave. Philip can do anything.

Ryan stares at the note and then looks up, quickly grabbing the handle and ripping the door open. He looks around in the hallway and Lukas realizes he’s wheezing through his mouth, catching sight of Philip exiting the building. He doesn’t go the same way he came, walking around the front and disappearing for a couple minutes as Ryan walks out into the hallway, peering around.

“He looks pissed,” Rose says. 

Lukas grabs the camera, focusing in on Ryan’s face. And he does look pissed, a simmering anger in his eyes, his jaw working back and forth.

Lukas wants Philip back here now.

“Yeah, I don’t have any doubts anymore and I’m not even looking at him zoomed in,” Rose says, clicking her tongue. “That man’s a killer.”

“And I’m gonna have to talk to his ass here in a couple minutes,” Lukas says. 

“You’re gonna make the call?” Rose asks.

“Of course I’m gonna make the call,” Lukas says, looking over his shoulder at her. “You guys are gonna go down there and dig, I gotta make myself useful in some kinda capacity considering you keep bringing up the fact that this whole thing is on me.”

“Well,” Rose says, shrugging. “It is.”

The door swings open and Lukas turns all the way around; he’s never been more excited to see Philip’s face. Another rumble of thunder starts in the distance but Lukas doesn’t even give a shit, rolling around Rose and over towards Philip, who’s beaming.

“What’d he do?” Philip asks, not even out of breath. 

“He looked pissed,” Rose says.

Lukas finds himself gazing at Philip, like a light is shining on him, and Lukas knows he’s never seen anything so beautiful. 

“What?” Philip asks, grinning. 

Lukas shakes his head, reaching out for him. Philip walks over and takes his hand, leaning in to press a long kiss to his lips. “You did really good,” Lukas whispers, against his skin.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Lukas says, stealing another kiss. He sucks in a breath, holding onto Philip’s hand as he rolls himself over to the coffee table. 

“He’s still looking out into the hallway,” Rose says. “He thinks you’re looming around.”

“He’s about to get a phone call,” Lukas says, kissing Philip’s knuckles before letting go of his hand. “What should I say again?”

“Just ask if he got the note, then tell him to meet you at the Red Cat, that you’re already there.”

“Okay,” Lukas says, swallowing hard and pulling out his phone.

His heart is in his throat as he dials Ryan’s number, making sure to make his number private before he presses connect. 

He watches as Ryan stares down at the note for a couple more seconds behind his closed door before his phone starts ringing. Lukas can’t fucking believe they’re doing this. He’s about to speak to this lunatic. They all three watch him stare for a second, and Philip puts a hand on Lukas’s shoulder, soothing his fingers into the muscle there. Ryan stares for a couple more seconds and then strides over, picking the phone up off the counter and bringing it to his ear.

Lukas hears his voice, and it sends chills down his spine. “Hello?” Ryan says. 

Rose gasps somewhere behind him, and Lukas tries to brace himself. “Did you get my note?” he asks, lowering his tone.

There’s a silence. “Who are you?” Ryan asks.

“Don’t worry about that,” Lukas says. “I know who you are. I know what you did.”

Ryan walks over and looks out the door again. “What are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m talking about,” Lukas says, getting angry now. “I’m at the Red Cat bar on third. Meet me there. We have some things to discuss.”

“You want me there now?” Ryan asks, closing the door and looking around.

“Right now,” Lukas says. “I’m not gonna wait all night. Come right now or I’m going to the police.”

Ryan stands there for a minute and then he looks out the window. Theirs is still open, the hot sticky wetness of the afternoon seeping inside, the rain threatening but never making good on those threats. “I’ll be there,” Ryan says.

Lukas doesn’t say another word before he hangs up the phone, letting out a big breath. He puts his cell down and sighs, closing his eyes briefly when he feels Philip run his hands through his hair. 

“Good job,” Philip says.

“Let’s hope he goes,” Lukas says, feeling a bit like he just ran a marathon.

“He’s gonna go,” Philip says. 

They watch him stand there, his hands on his hips, and then he walks over to his couch, picking up a cap and shoving it on his head. He grabs his phone and his wallet and heads out the door.

Lukas gets nervous again, watching him leave.

“Okay Rose, as soon as we see him turn the corner downstairs we head down,” Philip says. 

“We don’t know how long he’s gonna stay gone,” Lukas says, looking up at him. “You gotta be fast and you gotta be careful.”

“Of course,” Philip says, still stroking Lukas’s hair, because he knows it calms him. 

“We’ll be fast, that shovel is still down there,” Rose says, and Lukas hadn’t even thought about a fucking shovel, had just pictured them digging with their hands. He’s so stupid.

“Okay, there he goes,” Philip says, and Lukas looks up to see Ryan turning the corner and walking across the street. “We’ll be back.”

“Philip,” Lukas says, feeling dizzy as he grabs Philip’s wrist. He looks up into those eyes and tries to memorize him. “Be careful. Promise me.”

“It’s gonna be fine,” Philip says, and he leans down, kissing Lukas tenderly. 

“I love you,” Lukas says, his mind at fucking war with itself. He doesn’t want to let go of him. He hates this, hates that he put him in this position. He wants to go. He wants to protect Philip.

“I love you too,” Philip says. “See you in a bit.”

He slips out of Lukas’s grasp and Rose doesn’t even say anything before they’re both rushing out of the apartment. Lukas dips his head into his hands, feeling sick as hell for a minute. He keeps telling himself that Ryan is gone, he’s going all the way to the Red Cat. Logically, he’ll wait there for a couple minutes, look around. But it’s a bit of a journey there and back. They’ll have plenty of time.

But horrors keep flicking through his mind.

He wheels around the coffee table and gets as close to the window as he can. He reaches for the camera, accidentally grabbing the one with the big flash first before he grabs the one with the long lens. He looks through it and sees Philip and Rose run out of the building, Rose grabbing the shovel and getting to work, in the exact same space where the dog was digging before Ryan killed it.

“Okay, just be fast,” Lukas mutters, watching them. “Quick as you can.”

Philip keeps an eye out, looking into the alleyway, and he puts his thumbs up in Lukas’s direction, grinning.

“You’re so damn cute,” Lukas says, shaking his head.

Rose nearly decimates the flowers as she digs and Lukas is worried that they’re gonna destroy anything that’s down there. They both bend down as she keeps shoveling dirt up, and they look to be peering at something that Lukas can’t even see through the lens.

“What is it?” Lukas breathes.

Philip stands up then, standing his head and throwing up his arms. He points at the ground and shakes his head again. There’s nothing there.

It feels like a crushing blow. Ryan is like fucking smoke in the wind and this is it, this is him slipping through their fingers. There isn’t anything else they can do, nothing else they can find. He’s gonna goddamn get away with this shit, and Lukas is gonna go the rest of his life wondering if it really happened, if there was more he could have done.

That’s when Philip takes off running.

Lukas nearly drops the camera, his heart in his throat. “Baby, what in the fuck—”

Philip literally starts climbing the fire escape up to Ryan’s apartment. Rose is yelling and Lukas can vaguely hear her over his own panic—he sees Philip is going for Ryan’s open window, which is a little bit of a stretch. “Oh my God,” Lukas mutters. “Oh my God, you’re insane. You’re out of your mind.”

Philip goes up until he’s level with Ryan’s window and then he reaches over, grabbing on to the ledge. He slips inside and falls out of sight for a moment, and Lukas wants to rip off his cast and run over there, healing bones be damned. Nothing matters more than Philip. He feels so goddamn helpless. He wants to throw up. Philip stands and it's strange seeing him over there, in that apartment where that fucking lunatic lives. He’s inside. He’s in his apartment. He’s right there, Lukas can see him.

The danger is near.

“Fuck,” Lukas mutters. “God, please.”

Philip looks around in the kitchen, picks up a few things in the living room. Lukas chews on his nails and doesn’t know what the fuck he’s looking for, but he wants him to come back already. This is too fucking scary, it’s goddamn awful.

The door opens behind him and Lukas nearly jumps out of his skin. He hadn’t even noticed Rose wasn’t downstairs anymore and she rushes over, standing behind him.

“He’s out of his mind,” Rose says.

“He’s out of his mind,” Lukas croaks, feeling sick.

Philip walks into the bedroom and starts looking around, his eyes falling on Ryan’s half-packed luggage. He seems to remember something and he starts fishing through the clothes and the shoes. He comes up with the purse.

“Jesus, he’s smart,” Lukas says. 

“That shit could be some good evidence,” Rose says. “If she was still around, she’d have it, like you guys said. We just gotta come up with a reason why he has it, if he takes it.”

Lukas had nearly forgotten about it. “Yeah,” he says. “Maybe…maybe we can say it was buried in the garden?”

“Maybe,” Rose says.

Lukas doesn’t know what to think about anything that’s happening right now. The sky is getting darker and darker and he’s fucking terrified. Philip goes through the purse and holds up the wallet, mouthing something in Lukas’s direction. Lukas’s heart jolts and he looks at him through the camera, trying to see what he’s saying.

“Rose!” Lukas yells. “I can’t read lips, what—what’s he saying?”

“Not sure,” Rose says. “He’s holding up the wallet.”

Philip sighs and gives up, putting the wallet back in the purse.

“I’m sorry, baby, I’m sorry,” Lukas says, that sick feeling in his stomach getting overwhelming. “Just come back, please, shit.”

Philip keeps searching through the purse when the fucking unthinkable happens.

“Oh fuck, Lukas,” Rose says. “He’s there. Ryan. He’s home, he’s, he’s—”

Lukas looks down and sees Ryan getting into the elevator. He doesn’t look happy. A high-pitched ringing goes off in Lukas’s ears and he fumbles for his phone, his hands trembling and his eyes straining. He texts Philip. _HES THERE HES HME OUTSIDE GET OUT GET OUT_ and sends it, chills running up and down his body. He can’t breathe, he can’t breathe, Philip takes his phone out of his pocket and reads the message but Ryan gets out of the elevator—

“Oh God,” Rose breathes, clapping her hand over her mouth.

Philip starts rushing through the living room but the door opens and he’s face to face with Ryan. 

“Call the police,” Rose says. “Call them now.”

Lukas can’t breathe. He grabs the phone and dials 911, tears stinging in his eyes. He doesn’t know what to say but he has to get them here. Ryan is looking at Philip. He’s too close he’s too close. 

“911 what’s your emergency?”

“A man is assaulting someone in apartment 302 on 15th street, Golden Place Apartments,” Lukas says, hardly recognizing his own voice. “Come right away.”

“Sending a squad unit now, sir, can you—”

Lukas hangs up and drops his phone into his lap. He’s shaking so hard and Ryan seems to be yelling at Philip, Philip saying something back and moving away from him. And then Ryan lunges for him, going for his throat. 

“Fuck, no,” Lukas yells, and he lurches, tries to move out of his wheelchair.

“Lukas,” Rose says, trying to steady him. “You can’t—”

Lukas can’t hear, can’t breathe, looks up and sees Ryan’s hands around Philip’s throat. Everything is red, searing pain and boiling fear rushing through Lukas’s body. Panic, rage. God, no, no, no, not Philip, no no no. “I have to help him, I have to help him—”

Ryan rams Philip into the wall and the lights go out.

“Oh fuck,” Lukas sobs, covering his eyes. He claws at his own face. He’s helpless, useless, the love of his life is in trouble and he’s over here chained to this fucking chair.

“Lukas!” Philip’s voice screams. “Lukas, Lukas!”

“Oh my God,” Lukas cries, and he tries to get out of his wheelchair again, his whole body shaking, every terror in his mind coming to fruition. Nothing is worse than this, nothing. He has to save Philip. “Rose, what do I do? What do I do?”

“They’re here!” Rose says. “Look, look, the police!”

Lukas looks up, sees four cops rushing up the stairs. He can still hear Philip yelling for him and it makes him feel sick, and he wants the cops to hurry the fuck up. They get to the door and kick it in when they hear Philip yelling, and one of them flips the lights back on. 

Philip is against the wall and Ryan backs away from him when he sees the police. He starts talking to them immediately, gesturing to Philip.

“Fuck, he’s bleeding,” Lukas says, longing to get at him, to hold him in his arms. “Oh God, Philip.”

“They’ve got him now,” Rose says. “They’ll probably take him for breaking in. I think he got in a few good punches too. Ryan’s wincing.”

Lukas sighs, looking through the long lens. Philip has red marks around his throat and his nose is bleeding. Lukas feels fucking sick. Philip briefly looks out the window, his chest heaving, and then he turns around. He holds his hand behind his back and Lukas can see he’s holding something. 

“Oh shit,” Lukas says. “He got her wedding ring.”

“Oh damn.”

Philip wiggles it on his finger before slipping it onto his pinky, making sure that Lukas can see. The cops walk over and take Philip by the arm, but not before Ryan looks down and sees what he’s doing. Another chill goes down Lukas’s spine when he sees Ryan down at Philip’s hand, then look up and out the window. It’s like his eyes find Lukas immediately, and Lukas’s blood goes cold. 

“Scoot back,” Lukas says, wheeling backwards. “He’s—he knows.” Fuck, he knows. He can tell where they are. Where they live.

The cops take Philip away, which for some reason, makes Lukas feel better. At least he’s fucking safe. 

“Rose,” Lukas says. “You have the money to bail him out?”

“Yeah,” Rose says, nodding. “You know I save.”

“Then go get him out right now,” Lukas says. “I’ll pay you back. Keep him with you, don’t come back here til I say. It’s a first offense, he should get away with a court case and a fine, maybe nothing if we can prove this thing.”

“Okay,” Rose says. “You gonna call Helen?”

“Yeah, right now,” Lukas says. “Go get him. Tell him I love him.”

“I will,” Rose says, grabbing her purse and heading for the door.

Lukas sighs and quickly dials Helen, looking up and seeing Ryan standing in his living room. Lukas’s heart still feels like it’s gonna give out from what he just witnessed and he wipes at his eyes, sniffling a little bit.

“Lukas?”

“Helen, don’t flip, but Philip just got arrested.”

Silence. Then a sigh. “Why?” she asks, drawing out the word.

“He broke into Ryan’s apartment.”

“Jesus _fucking_ Christ—”

“But listen, that asshole was attacking and punching and choking your kid, so he ain’t no angel, whether you think he’s a murderer or not. But he is, because Philip got Bella’s wedding ring out of the apartment. From her purse. That’s proof, Helen, she wouldn’t leave town without her wedding ring.”

“I’m coming over there,” Helen says, and she sounds angry. “I’ll be there in just a few minutes—”

“Rose is bailing him out so don’t even worry about that,” Lukas says, scratching around the top of his cast.

“I’m not worried,” Helen says. “I just cannot goddamn believe we’re in this situation.”

“He’s a murderer,” Lukas says. “We’ve got him on the ropes.”

“Jesus Christ, Lukas,” Helen says. “I can’t wait til you get that thing off. You’ve gone totally off the deep end and now Philip is in jail.”

Lukas rolls his eyes. “Rose is bailing him out.”

“I’m coming over there,” Helen says. “Just sit tight.”

“Yeah, like I can do anything else,” Lukas says, and then the line goes dead without either one of them saying goodbye.

He looks up and Ryan’s apartment is dark. 

Lukas narrows his eyes. He searches the hallways but he’s not there either. Lukas’s heart speeds up a little bit and he looks over towards his own front door. Rose definitely didn’t lock it on her way out. Lukas takes a big breath and he has a terrible feeling. That asshole looked right at him, right into their apartment. He knows. He fucking knows. 

He’s coming over here.

Lukas quickly rolls over to the front door and shuts off the lights, his heart beating wildly in his throat. He locks the door. He rolls back over to the window and tries to sit in the shadows, the storm outside darkening the sky. He doesn’t have any weapons. His wheelchair can’t even fit in through the kitchen door to get a goddamn knife. 

He sits there and breathes hard, glad Philip isn’t here and wishing for him all the same. 

The lights in the hallway go out just as Lukas is thinking about calling the police. His doorknob rattles. There are little clicking sounds. 

Lukas grabs his phone and calls 911.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“Someone is breaking into my apartment,” Lukas says. And then his door creaks open.

Ryan is tall and imposing, and it’s so dark that Lukas can barely see his face. He’s still wearing that hat.

Lukas is struck with fear, letting his phone slide into his lap and out of his trembling hands. He stares at him for a moment, terrified, thinking of the way he hurt Philip. Then Lukas has an idea. He reaches over, grabbing the camera with the big flash as easily as he can. He wonders if Ryan can see his face. 

“What do you want from me?” Ryan asks, and he sounds a lot more menacing in person than over the phone.

Lukas doesn’t answer, doesn’t know if he could even if he tried. His skin under the cast is itching endlessly, but he doesn’t dare make another move. 

“How do you know what I did?” Ryan asks, and Lukas wishes Helen was fucking here because that’s as good a confession as any.

“You weren’t careful enough,” Lukas says. “There are always people watching.”

Ryan doesn’t move. “Can you get me that ring back?”

“No,” Lukas says. “It’s with the police now.”

Ryan does start to approach then, stiff and sure like a fucking terminator, and Lukas quickly turns on the camera, vaguely recalling when Philip first showed him how to use it. He takes a quick photo, closing his eyes, and the flash goes off.

Ryan is standing still when Lukas opens his eyes, his hands at his face. Then, he takes a tentative step forward, and Lukas closes his eyes again, flashing another photo.

Ryan grumbles, digging his fingers into his eyes, and he moves faster. Lukas tries for one more photo but Ryan leaps for him, punching him across the face. Lukas drops the camera in the midst of the pain and Ryan knocks it to the ground, rattling the wheelchair. He hits him again and Lukas cries out, swinging, trying to hit back. Ryan runs into him and turns the chair to the side, and Lukas looks out the window. “Help!” he yells, hoping someone will hear him. “Help, help me!” His phone clatters to the ground and he wonders if the 911 operator is still on the line.

He catches another punch and tastes blood. He reaches out and claws at Ryan’s face, feels them both edging towards the window. Ryan grabs him under his arms and pushes him up on the ledge, and Lukas can tell where this is going, his heart raging, sweat breaking out on his forehead. He looks over his shoulder and sees Helen, Philip and Rose in the alleyway, a couple of other people behind them. Ryan hits him again and Lukas falls onto his side in the windowsill.

“Philip!” Lukas screams, and Ryan pushes him. The cast is so fucking heavy that he falls out the window like he’s falling through water. He hangs onto the edge, clinging on for dear life. He hears an unfamiliar yell, then another, and loud footsteps.

Ryan is trying to pry his fingers free and Lukas doesn’t know how much longer he can hold on.

“Break his fall!”

“Lukas! Lukas!”

Ryan hits him again and Lukas lets go, toppling to the world below. But there are two people there and they nearly catch him, cushioning the blow, though a sharp, horrifying, familiar pain shoots through his good leg when he hits the ground. He whites out for a second, gasping, and he feels hands on him.

“Up there,” he mutters, as the men around him get to their feet. “That guy killed his wife.”

Philip rushes over and gathers Lukas up in his arms, cradling his head in his lap. “Lukas. Lukas, open your eyes. Look at me.”

Lukas does, and Philip is there, radiant and bright against the stormy sky. Lukas feels pain throughout his whole body and he reaches up and touches Philip’s face. 

“Talk to me,” Philip breathes, rubbing his hand over Lukas’s chest. “Talk to me, please.”

“I was so scared when he was hurting you,” Lukas rasps. “Jesus, if anything had happened to you I never would have forgiven myself.”

Philip smiles a little bit, brushing Lukas’s hair back. “This dangerous enough?”

Lukas shakes his head. “I never want to hear that word again.”

“I’m so proud of you,” Philip says, leaning in and kissing his forehead. “You knew all along.”

Lukas looks at him, traces over his beautiful face. There’s no one in the world he’d rather be looking at. No one in the world he’d rather kiss, hold, make dinner for, go on long walks in the park with. No one in the world he’d rather spend the rest of his life with. Philip is it. The most wonderful person on the planet, and Lukas can’t believe Philip loves him. “Will you marry me?” Lukas asks.

Philip stares at him for a few long moments, chaos erupting around them and above them and everywhere. Lukas can hear sirens. “Are you serious?” Philip asks.

“I told you it’d be dramatic,” Lukas says, laughing a little bit. Everything hurts, but God, he loves being in Philip’s arms. 

“Are you really asking?” Philip says, grinning.

“Yes,” Lukas says. “I don’t have a ring, but—”

“Yes,” Philip says. “Yes, yes, of course I’ll marry you.”

Lukas closes his eyes, a feeling of contentment washing over him despite all the pain. “Thank God,” he says, as he hears the telltale sound of a stretcher heading his way. “Thank God.”

~  
~

Ryan admits to everything. Tells the police that he killed Bella in his bedroom, cut her up in the bathroom, carried her out in his briefcase when Lukas saw him going in and out that morning, and buried what he had left behind in the rose bushes. The dog got too close, so he killed it, and then he reburied the pieces in the furthest corner plot. The woman was a ruse, the crate was a ruse, the train tickets were a ruse too. Lukas was right about all of it, and Philip couldn’t have been prouder. They both rubbed it in Helen’s face as soon as she told them, and it was the first time Philip has ever seen her relent to anything. 

Ryan was a broken man, and Philip was glad for it.

Lukas sleeps in his wheelchair by the window, casts on both legs now. Philip sighs, watching him, and marks off another day on the calendar, the end of the first week. Four more to go for both legs. He figures he’ll get Lukas Frankie’s again tonight to make him feel better. 

He walks over, kissing Lukas’s forehead lightly, earning a small mumble. “Love you,” Philip whispers, brushing his hair back. He walks over and lounges on the couch, pulling out one of Lukas’s motocross magazines. He scans the shots and thinks about the resume he has open on his laptop in the bedroom. As soon as Lukas gets the casts off, they’re gonna start over. Things are gonna be better.

Philip is ready for a little bit more danger. Not too much, not as much as Ryan brought to them, but just enough. 

He knows they’re capable of anything.


End file.
